September, 2008

Official salaries for last week’s Ultimate Fight Night 15 were released today by the Nebraska State Athletic Commission, and not surprisingly it was Nate Diaz who made off with the most cheddar (that’s what the kids call money these days, right?). Here’s the full breakdown. Each winning fighter’s salary represents a doubling of his base pay:

Well, we’re officially disturbed. This picture of Patrick Cote, um, blowing off some steam(?) was sent to us by mini at hithiphop.com and we immediately wished we had never seen it. So we did what any responsible internet types would do: we forced it on you, our readers. Enjoy your nightmares.

We don’t begrudge a guy his right to have a few too many (at least we hope alcohol was involved) and do things he’ll later wish he hadn’t. But when we picture the guy who’ll finally bring Anderson Silva’s tremendous winning streak to an end, this isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

— It looks like Cain Velasquez (4-0) has found his next opponent. The heavyweight up-and-comer will reportedly face London Shootfighters product Mustapha Al-Turk (6-3) at “UFC Fights for the Troops” (December 10th; Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina). Al-Turk, who recently signed a four-fight contract with the UFC, is the current Cage Rage British Heavyweight Champion; like Velasquez, all of his wins have come via first-round stoppage.

— TUF 7 embarrassment Jesse “Mongo” Taylor has booked his next fight against another UFC vet who famously can’t keep his shit together. He’ll be facing Drew Fickett at Total Combat 32 on October 2nd, at the Syucan Casino near San Diego. Total Combat claims that the card will be televised on MTV3 (?).

— The UFC is planning to hold its first show in the Philippines next summer. Lorenzo Fertitta was blown away by the rabid public response to an appearance by Chuck Liddell at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City on Sunday, saying “Chuck is a rock star over here…We’re probably more mainstream in the Philippines than we are in the US. We’re going to be moving the show around the world, and we’re creating the UFC global footprint.”

— BetUS.com has established the odds for UFC 90′s Anderson Silva/Patrick Cote scrap as -800/+425, with the Spider as the runaway favorite, obviously. Once Cote’s line gets up to about +16,000, we’ll consider throwing a sawbuck on him.

So Tapout has this new short film called “Pit Fight Redux,” which stars Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, and Seth Petruzelli. At first it seems to be about a futuristic dystopian prison, where inmates have to fight for their freedom. Unfortunately, at about the five-minute mark the story falls apart and the narrator explains that the prison is really a metaphor for all of us being trapped in cages of our own making. Seriously. Can anybody make heads or tails of this goddamned thing?

Sportscenter scored an interview with John McCain last week and got the Republican Presidential candidate to open up about boxing and MMA (known to old people as “Ultimate Fighting”). It seems like he’s cooled down considerably since his “human cockfighting” days — McCain acknowledges that the sport is less barbaric today, and admits that his primary impression of MMA was based on a single fight, which featured “a guy bashing his head into an opponent’s face that was literally unconscious.” If anyone can identify which Mark Kerr fight he’s referring to, let us know.

Even though they’ve stripped him of the title, the door is not yet closed on KJ Noons’ relationship with Elite XC. The company reportedly gave Noons a Monday deadline to determine whether, and under what circumstances, he’ll continue to work for them. After all this drama it’s hard to imagine that we’ll be seeing Noons back in the Elite XC cage unless he gets a significant pay raise. Even then, you have to wonder what they would do with their ex-lightweight champ.

He refused to fight Nick Diaz even though it’s the only bout for him with any real heat at the moment. His manager, Mark Dion, said previously that the fight Noons really wants is one with Eddie Alvarez. Trouble is, rumors are now circulating that it will be Diaz who faces Alvarez for the vacant Elite XC title. Now that’s got to sting if you’re Noons. Not only does Diaz get more money, he also gets the fight KJ wants and maybe even his belt. What’s next, his bike?

If that happens, Noons can wait out the Diaz-Alvarez bout, hoping that Alvarez wins and he’ll finally get his shot at him. Even then, there’s still the sticky issue of money to sort out. If Diaz pulls out the victory Noons will be almost forced into a rematch with him for the belt that was his to begin with.

After everything that’s happened, however, it seems more likely that Noons is looking for the door at this point. He still has two fights on his contract, though he could decide to focus on boxing for a while in the hopes that Elite XC will crumble and he’ll be free and clear to sign a new MMA deal when they do. That is, assuming there is an organization who will be willing to pay him what he thinks he’s worth even after he’s been out of the game for a while.

Sounds like refusing a much-hyped rematch on network TV maybe wasn’t the best career move after all. Weird.

Yesterday’s Dream.6 press conference got off to a fun start after news that Mighty Mo Siliga has had to pull out of his bout with Sergei Kharitonov with an injury suffered in training. That’s when Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic stepped up to offer his services, despite the fact that he’s also scheduled to take on Alistair Oveerem on the same night. Was this just another attempt to get under Oveerem’s skin in their ongoing war of words, or could it be that Cro Cop is trying to make up for lost time?

At least it sounds like a sincere offer:

“Well I’ve just heard that Mighty Mo is not going to fight since he is injured,” said a serious Filipovic. “We are all professional fighters. I’m ready to jump in, in his place. If Dream agrees, I’m ready to fight two fights tomorrow. It doesn’t mean that I underestimate Alistair, I would like to fight him first –- the fourth fight against him and the eleventh fight against Sergei. Sergei definitely trained hard for this and I’m sure he doesn’t want to go home without a fight.”

Oveerem felt a little slighted by the offer, as you might imagine, telling reporters, “I think after I fight Mirko, he will never fight again.”

(Kim Couture at the first “Night of Combat” show in June; thankfully, she’ll be behind the scenes this time. Photo courtesy of Mike Responts via MMA Junkie.)

With Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” card postponed, the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas was left with an open spot on its event schedule — which has been filled by a new MMA card, thanks to none other than Kim “Sugar Free” Couture. According to MMA Weekly, KC Concepts (a shadowy outfit headed up by Randy’s wife) in partnership with boxing promoter Skip Kelp’s Superfights MMA have snatched up the October 11th spot at Thomas & Mack. Two Xtreme Couture fighters who were slated to fight at “Day of Reckoning” — Jay Hieron and Mike Pyle — will now compete at “A Night of Combat II,” as well as a host of other mid-level names. Tickets are available now, and the lineup is looking like this:

Not too bad, considering the most expensive ticket is $53. I wonder if Ozzy will still show up…

Related: “Day of Reckoning” headliner Josh Barnett is also moving on with his life. He will reportedly fight at Sengoku 6 (November 1st; Saitama, Japan) against an opponent to be named later. The event will be co-headlined by the semi-finals and finals of Sengoku’s lightweight grand prix, featuring Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, and Mizuto Hirota.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was recently interviewed by Brazilian cable channel SporTV. The TV show [Sensei SporTV], featuring Spider, will air on September 27, but the editors released a shocking excerpt from the interview with Silva, when the champion spoke on his retirement from MMA:

“I’ll retire next year, I already gave my all. I don’t need to prove anything for anyone and within one year I’ll put my gloves aside.”

We’ve often heard stories of the mythical Athlete Who Retires at His Peak, but we’ve never actually seen one. Hopefully, this is just Silva’s way of pressuring Dana White to let him fight every month. But more likely, he feels he’s accomplished as much as he can in his career without fighting friends. Silva has repeatedly shot down the idea of a fight with WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho, and has also said that he won’t challenge for the UFC’s light-heavyweight title because “this belt is Lyoto’s.” So what does that leave besides retirement? If we’re lucky, it means superfights with Georges St. Pierre and a couple of light-heavyweight stars before he rides off into the sunset.

Michael Bisping is hot favourite to be named as one of the coaches on the new series of The Ultimate Fighter…

The UFC have not yet offered Bisping the coach’s role on TUF 9 because he is scheduled to fight Chris Leben at UFC 89 at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena on October 18.

But SunSport understands Dana White will immediately hand the British star a contract to appear on the show if he overcomes Leben next month.

It is believed Dan Henderson will coach the US team, with the TUF 9 finale featuring him in a clash for the #1 middleweight contender’s spot against Bisping, which could take place in December next year.

As the UFC’s only British star, it makes sense that the TUF 3 winner would be chosen as a coach for the “U.S. vs. U.K.” season of The Ultimate Fighter. But it also makes you wonder who will be picked to lead the British team if Bisping loses to Leben. We’re assuming it would still be Bisping — but then would a fight between him and Hendo really be a #1 contender match? When contacted by MMA Weekly, The Count confirmed that he hadn’t been made an offer yet, but he’d certainly be open to one:

Last night’s Strikeforce card at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills featured two Japanese stars making successful debuts for the organization, lightweight champ Josh Thomson easily winning his squash match, and impressive performances by Terry Martin, Trevor Prangley, and Luke Stewart. In the night’s main event, #9-ranked middleweight Kazuo Misaki went toe-to-toe with Joe Riggs, with both fighters hesitant to engage in the first round. Riggs dropped Misaki with a straight left in the second, but Misaki hopped back up and connected with a straight right that sent Riggs to the mat. Misaki threw down blows from above until referee Josh Rosenthal declared it a TKO; Riggs immediately complained about the stoppage, despite Rosenthal’s repeated (and unanswered) warnings for Riggs to improve his position.

In a relatively pointless non-title fight, Josh Thomson disposed of Lion’s Den product Ashe Bowman in just over a minute. Aside from a stiff overhand right from Bowman that landed flush on Thomson’s chin, the match belonged to The Punk, who swarmed his opponent with punches to end the match. His victory sets up a future match with Shooto/PRIDE/Dream vet Mitsuhiro Ishida, who won his Strikeforce debut last night with a submission over the far-outmatched Justin Wilcox. See the above video for Ishida’s unbelievable transition from kimura to armbar (2:36-2:42), which apparently didn’t feel very pleasant for Wilcox.